Moderator's Report

SUMMARY

An important win for Al Heller in his chase for the title. After setting the pole time and leading for much of the race Tussman had to settle for second place after a titanic race long dual. DRock grabbed the second podium of his career with a solid drive to third place.

Server replay time: 0h18m56s

Lap 11 - Wakefield Corner – Nhance and Flatspot

Norm (Nhance) is leading Phil (Flatspot) when they pull over to let the leaders lap them. Norm is a little too courteous, running very wide and loosing momentum. Phil seizes on the opportunity to overtake and gets alongside Norm as they enter the next left-hander. Neither driver gives way and contact is made.

This was a legitimate passing attempt and both drivers were entitled to fight for position. Phil had achieved more than a 50% overlap but not 100%. Once side-by-side both drivers moved over. This was a contested pass and consequently is classed as a racing incident.

Advice. Neither driver benefits from a coming together due to a contested pass and it is not a situation in which blame can be apportioned to one party alone. Both drivers have a responsibility to give each other room in a 50:50 situation such as this. If you can’t see the other car in your mirrors you must assume they are along side and drive accordingly. Eventually one or other driver will get the upper hand, possibly several corners later. Norm should have kept a tighter inside line and Phil should have stayed a bit wider.

Racing incident

Server replay time: 0h36m35s

Lap 21 - Racetrack Corner – Nhance and Flatspot

This time Phil is leading and runs wide and it is Norms chance to mount an attack. Norm gets along side on the exit of Brabham Hairpin but Phil has the inside line into Racetrack. Neither driver wants to give way and contact is made.

Again this was a legitimate overtaking attempt. Neither driver had won the corner and they were entitled to fight for position. Racing incident.

Advice. The driver on the outside will always be at a disadvantage because of the risk of lag. Lag always pushes cars wide so the inside car is never at risk of lag contact but the outside car is. Consequently, in the interests of self preservation, the car taking the wide line should always leave a little more room than would be absolutely necessary in real life.

The eight round of the season takes place down under on the sunny streets of Adelaide. The circuit is a temporary street circuit in the East Parklands and played host to 11 Formula One Grand Prix events from 1985 to 1995. It is the scene of Niki Lauda's last race and Ayrton Senna's last win, and it has also proven to be the deciding round in more than one World Championship, including the famous incidents involving Nigel Mansell in 1986 and Damon Hill and Michael Schumacher in 1994.

It also held the shortest race in Formula 1 history when the race was stopped after 14 laps due to heavy rain.

The restriction that reserve drivers should not join the race server until there are only 30 mins of qualifying left is being relaxed for this race. We have enough grid slots to accomodate all the full-time and reserve drivers so there is no risk of a reserve driver taking a full-time driver's grid slot.

No drivers should go out on track until there is 30 minutes of qualifying left - this helps to ensure all the drivers have joined the server successfully before qualifying begins.

Please restrict chat to "pit in" / "pit out" messages, and at the end of the race avoid chat until ALL drivers still racing have crossed the line.

Please be in the IGOR UKGPL chatroom by 8:55 p.m.(You will need to set up a channel called #ukgpl if you haven't already done so)IGOR and Race passwords: see above

Chassis allocations are below, and the same chassis will be used for all races this season unless there is an adjustment agreed by the moderator. Please note chassis adjustments can be made at any time not just at the mid season review. Good luck!

Please use the updated 65 mod for this race.If you have re-installed UKGPL over the summer break or are joining us for the first time, please don't forget to use the updated 65 mod which is available here: Jamesonline.net/UKGPL

I've been practising here recently at Adelaide for the next round. I hope I get a spot on the grid and can improve my performance after Zandvoort. Enthusiastic newbie waffle follows:

It seems the key there is finding the best compromise between a setup that's soft enough to be aggressive over the curbs at the first chicane and at Markets Kink (I'm only riding these curbs significantly with the right-hand wheels), but not so soft that the car is unresponsive in the rest of the lap.

I think I'm getting there, the only place the car catches me out even when I'm concentrating properly is at the entrance to Wakefield Corner. Sometimes the car wants to pull to the left under braking, and if that happens I end up running very wide. Surely the car can't still be affected by the left-hander after the chicane by then? The only way I've managed to be reasonably fast through there is by chucking the car into the corner and hoping for the best.

The other problem is Stag Hotel, where the car's often still slightly unsettled by Markets Kink, and oversteers a bit. It's hard to use all the road here, and I seem mostly to be just trying to catch the car when it's pointing the right way and powering out. If I do run out wide, snicking the kerb even slightly makes me spin. Brewery Bend is a lot of fun though, and when I get the trajectory right the car follows the groove and then the kerb catches the slide for me.

Certain parts of this track are very slippery and Stag Hotel is one of them. I exit the kink and get the car settled with a bit of throttle before braking for the right hander. You may find the car naturally starts to slide right and you can use that to get the nose pointed in the right direction and control the exit with throttle. Takes practise but its doable.

Try this setup that I use. A team mate and I can do mid to low 35s with it so far but have best sectors for 34s.

I've been doing plenty of laps with your setup, it's a lot better than the one I was using before. Typically I can do 37s and 36s, occasionally getting 35s when I hook it all up.

The main problem I seem to be having is getting heat into the tyres. Pribulda's tyre temp indicators only get up to green after around 5 or 6 laps, before that I get chronic understeer and my times are really slow.

Is this normal? Perhaps I need to be more aggressive on cold tyres to get the heat into them quicker.

The main problem I seem to be having is getting heat into the tyres. Pribulda's tyre temp indicators only get up to green after around 5 or 6 laps, before that I get chronic understeer and my times are really slow.

Bear in mind that I am running in Pro 50% races so if I have the tyres too hot, by mid way in a Pro race they will be no use. GPL doesn't have tyre wear so they don't degrade over the race but if they are too hot they will lose performance, so if the first few laps are under temp it isn't too much of a problem and everyone else is in the same position anyway. Also the heavier fuel load I run at the start of a race will help me heat them more quickly than you will with a low fuel load.

I find the opposite than you though, I find I get oversteer, but if you approach the turn in a little slower by braking a little earlier and getting on the throttle as you approach the apex then the back should be happy to step out and you can get a nice 4 wheel drift going on and through the exit. That's the theory anyway though i don't always manage it.

If you're really not happy put an extra psi in each tyre or try 2 and see how hot they are after a longer run (half a Novices race length).

Thanks for the tips. I tried changing my driving style as you suggested and it seems to have helped a bit. I'm getting more consistent now, did a 12 lap run with only one spin, which is good progress for me.

I think I might have been wrong about the tyre temps - at the end of the day, as you say, everyone is on cold tyres for the first few laps, and Adelaide is a short lap so it will take 4 or 5 to get them up to temp.

I see the race length is set to Long, I make that 25 laps, is that right? It's going to be a tough 45 minutes or so of racing, concentration is key around here, IMO.

I noticed that in the first post the info for the Amateurs is shown, which among other things says that there are enough slots for all full time and reserve drivers. This obviously isn't the case so i thought I'd point that out.

As for the race, what is the rule on going wide over the curb at the exit of the backstretch kink? I know it's quite a risk to try it but will we be penalized if we do?

But, be very careful in getting back onto the racing line, because someone who has got that corner nailed will be catching you very fast. If you pull back onto the main circuit and cause an "incident" the moderators may take a dim view. Not that I have EVER done anything like that you understand